Top
The lives of Europe's royalty in the nineteenth century were as full of drama and incident as any opera. In The Empress of Farewells, royal historian Prince Michael of Greece tells with intimacy and delightful wit the story of Charlotte, Empress of Mexico and daughter of King Leopold I of Belgium. Dazzlingly beautiful and gravely intelligent, she fell in love with Archduke Maximilian of Austria, brother of Emperor Franz Josef. After their marriage they immediately took on their duties as viceroys of the Italian provinces of Lombardy-Venetia. But the triumph of Italy's unification movement took away their domain and left them with no future.
The life of Charlotte is part romance, part tragedy, part adventure, part mystery. What was her real relationship with her "beloved," Maximilian, and what explains this ambitious woman's sudden breakdown? Why, if the European royals wanted Mexico, did they resign themselves so quickly to do nothing to save it? Why, after Maximilian's death, did his family imprison Charlotte in the fortress castle of Miramar? And what became of her immense fortune? Drawing on previously unpublished documents from the royal families' archives, Prince Michael of Greece has written a compelling, historically illuminating portrait of a remarkable woman.
